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Friday, March 29, 2013

Eritrean-born man tied to terror group sentenced to more than 9 years

(CNN) -- A man originally from Eritrea was sentenced
Wednesday to more than nine years in U.S. federal prison after pleading
guilty last year to conspiring with Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked
terror organization, prosecutors said.

Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, a
38-year-old resident of Sweden, received his 111-month sentence in a New
York City federal court, said Preet Bharara, U. S. Attorney for the
Southern District of New York.

Ahmed traveled to Somalia
to receive military training from the terror group, federal officials
said. Al-Shabaab has made several public statements threatening to harm
the United States.

"Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed
traveled thousands of miles to align himself with al-Shabaab, to aid
their campaign of terror and to learn their 'ways of war,'" Bharara said
in a statement. "Today, his journey ends in prison and marks the latest
victory in our constant effort to protect Americans from terrorism at
home and abroad."

In addition to the prison term, Ahmed will be deported upon completion of his sentence, prosecutors said.

Ahmed pleaded guilty last
June to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the
terrorist organization Al-Shabaab and one count of conspiracy to receive
military-type training from it, prosecutors said.

In a March 29, 2012,
letter to a federal judge, prosecutors said a former top leader of
Al-Shabaab may have testified against Ahmed if his case were to go to
trial.

That former leader is
Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, who also had ties to al Qaeda and who secretly
pleaded guilty in 2011 to federal charges, the Justice Department said
Monday. He has provided the U.S. government with valuable intelligence
information, the Justice Department said.

The U.S. military
captured Warsame at sea in April 2011 while he was traveling from Yemen
to Somalia. He pleaded guilty in New York the following December to nine
terrorism charges.

Al-Shabaab has tried to
destabilize the government of Somalia in a "holy war" and has recruited
foreign fighters from other countries, including the United States, to
engage in violent jihad, prosecutors said.

Ahmed was arrested in
Nigeria in 2009 after authorities say he traveled to Somalia to undergo
bomb-making and bomb-detonation training from members of Al-Shabaab,
authorities said.

While he was in Somalia,
Ahmed paid 3,000 euros (about $3,830) to Al-Shabaab and gave an AK-47
rifle and magazines to a military commander in the group, according to
court documents.
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